Local illustrator/author and historian Miller Pope, has published his fifth book “Infamous Pirates [Read more…] about Area Author’s New Book
Happy Father’s Day!!!
CoastalNC-Wilmington.com would like to wish all the Fathers a Happy Father’s Day! The idea for creating Father’s Day, a day for children to honor their fathers, was first thought of by a woman named Sonora Smart Dodd. Sonora was listening to a Mother’s Day sermon in 1909 in Spokane, Washington when the idea for Father’s Day came to her.
Her father, William Jackson Smart, had raised her after her mother died and Sonora wanted to let father know how special he was to her. It was her father that made all the parental sacrifices and was, in the eyes of his daughter, a courageous, selfless, and loving man. Sonora’s father was born in June, so she chose to hold the first Father’s Day celebration in Spokane, Washington on the 19th of June, 1910.
A National Father’s Day Committee was formed in New York City in 1926. Father’s Day was finally recognized by a Joint Resolution of Congress in 1956. In 1972, President Richard Nixon established a permanent national observance of Father’s Day to be held on the third Sunday of June.
So Father’s Day was born in memory and gratitude by a daughter who thought that her father and all good fathers should be honored with a special day just like we honor our mothers on Mother’s Day.
Sea Turtles Are Here!
The sea turtles are coming ashore nightly and nesting on the area beaches including Wrightsville Beach.
The Winds Resort Beach Club, an oceanfront resort hotel on nearby Ocean Isle Beach has “adopted” a sea turtle nest and they want your help naming their Turtle!
Be sure to submit your names for consideration by Friday June 26 and come back to this site to vote on the name on Saturday June 27th with the winning name to be chosen by online votes placed by visitors to this site!
Email your Turtle Name suggestions to: [email protected] by Friday June 26th for consideration. The list of proposed names will be posted here on this website on Saturday June 27th with the winning name to be chosen by online votes placed by visitors to this site!
Be sure to submit your names for consideration by Friday June 26th for and come back to this site to vote on the name on Saturday 27th!
Gloria Hillenburg – Coordinator of the Ocean Isle Beach Turtle Patrol says “Mother turtles continue to come in and lay their eggs just about nightly and new nests are discovered constantly. We are there to protect them and get their babies out to sea to make their long journey, only to return to our Island and start the process all over again.”
You can help the turtles when you visit Wrightsville Beach by following a few simple guidelines:
Do Not Disturb: If you see an adult sea turtle coming on shore, stay quiet and keep your distance! Otherwise she may get scared and go back into the ocean without nesting. They are an endangered species and it is a federal offense to harass them.
Turn Off All Flashlights! Lights may scare or confuse the adult female and cause her to leave without nesting.
Lights Cause Hatchlings To Go In the Wrong Direction: Please turn off all outside lights each night. Also if there are curtains or blinds use them so your indoor lights do not lead the hatchlings away from the ocean.
Never Pick Up A Hatchling. It is critical that they crawl on their own.
Do Not Disturb The Nest Area. Watch for the nest markers.
Stay Off Sand Dunes & Do Not Pick Sea Oats. Sand dunes provide critical habitat for sea turtles and help prevent flooding during times of extreme tides and storms. Foot traffic kills plants and severely damages the sand dunes. The penalty for failure to adhere to this requirement is a $100 fine.
Help Us Keep Our Beaches Clean -Sea turtles may mistake a plastic bag or other forms of litter for a jellyfish (they eat them). All personal items and equipment must be removed from the beach each day- these items may trap a sea turtle.
Please Fill In All Holes On The Beach When Done Playing.- Holes can trap sea turtles and are a safety hazard to humans.
Keep Dogs On Leashes At All Times!– No dogs shall be permitted on the beach strand between the hours of 9:00am and 6:00pm during period of Memorial Day through Labor Day regardless of whether they are leashed or not.
Fireworks can scare off nesting sea turtles and leave behind trash that may be mistaken for food by marine wildlife.- Discharge of fireworks is not permitted per North Carolina state laws.
Please Report all sightings of nesting turtles, dead turtles, unmarked nests or crawls (looks like a bulldozer came out of the water).
Call the Wrightsville Beach Sea Turtle Project at: 910-791-4541
Keep up wtih the Sea Turtle Project at: https://turtles.wrightsville-beach.info/
Aquarist – Ft. Fisher Aquarium
Take a guided tour through the depths of the Aquarium or become an aquarist for the day?
The Aquarium offers behind the scenes tours on:
Thursday, April 1 at 11:30 AM and Sunday, April 4 at 11:00 and at 2:00 PM.
Accompany Aquarium staff on a guided tour of animal quarantine, life support, food preparation, and access areas with this unique opportunity. The Aquarist Apprentice program, which includes a behind the scenes tour, gives participants the chance to learn about the Aquarium’s animals and their diets, and assist staff in the preparation of food and feeding of some of the animals.
Participants will also observe the Aquarists accomplish some of their daily care and maintenance tasks. This program will be offered on Saturday, April 10 at 2:00 PM.
With the arrival of warmer temperatures, outdoor activities are an excellent option for a fun-filled day. The Aquarium offers several programs that will help you get back to nature. Salt marsh explorations will be held Sunday, April 4 at 3:30 PM.
The program involves hiking the salt marsh trail and viewing first-hand the activities of marsh-dwelling animals and the variety of plants found in this rich environment.
Popular surf fishing workshops will return starting Saturday, April 10 at 9:00 AM. The program involves a 3-hour workshop, which includes one hour of classroom discussion, then surf fishing on the beach nearby.
PRE-REGISTRATION REQUIRED BY MARCH 31, 2010 FOR APRIL 2 AND 3, 2010 PROGRAMS and can be made by calling 910-458-7468.
The North Carolina Aquarium at Fort Fisher is located on US 421 approximately 15 miles south of Wilmington,NC just beyond Kure Beach, NC. From Southport, NC take the Southport-Fort Fisher Ferry. For ferry schedule, call 910-457-6942 or toll free at 1-800-BYFERRY. https://www.ncaquariums.com/fort-fisher
White Ibis Island Sanctuary
Battery Island, located just down the Cape Fear River from Wilmington NC, is home to the largest White Ibis nesting population in southeastern North Carolina. For many years, this 100-acre Audubon Sanctuary has been the site of North Carolina’s largest gathering of breeding wading birds. Herons, egrets, and ibises flock to the island by the thousands each spring. Since 1982, the island has been guarded and protected by the National Audubon Society.
Each year, between 9,000 and 15,000 breeding pairs of white ibises, nearly all that nest in the state, as well as hundreds of breeding pairs of herons and egrets, descend on the Sanctuary to nest and raise their young. The island has always been vital to North Carolina’s wading bird population and, recently, was designated as “globally important” for the great numbers of white ibises that nest on the island every year. (Approximately 12% of the global white ibis population nests at Battery Island.)
In 1996 the Cape Fear Garden Club of Wilmington, NC stepped forward to officially adopt the sanctuary and assist with the protection and management of the island. Since that time, the Cape Fear Garden Club has donated more than $20,000 in support of this Audubon Sanctuary.
Battery Island is posted and patrolled throughout the year, and is off-limits to visitors. Protecting the island, the nesting birds and their habitats is essential to conserving wading birds in North Carolina. The Cape Fear Garden Club offers a guided boat tour of the sanctuary every spring, check their website for more details.
Wilmywood
It has been 25 years since ‘Firestarter’ changed Wilmington. Back in 1984 when Drew Barrymore starred as a girl who started fires with her mental powers, a USA Today film critic commented that the movie had “gaping plot holes” and “a parade of badly directed performances.” The film wasn’t a top contender for an Oscar. But for this area, and perhaps all of North Carolina, “Firestarter,” was a history changing movie. Firestarter was not a huge critical or commercial success but the money saved on the location made an impression on its studio.
Back then in 1983, the population of Wilmington was less than 44,000 and the idea of making a movie here was pretty much unheard of. When filming began the curious local population showed up en mass on the location shoots to find out what the fuss was all about.
Back then no one here really knew what a key grip, gaffer or best boy was. How different it all is now just 25 years later!
These days Wilmington has a host of puesdonims like Hollywood East and Wilmywood and the list of television and feature films shot here numbers over 325.
Nowadays in Wilmington, you’ll be hard pressed to walk up to any local on the street who hasn’t either been in a movie, doesn’t know someone who has or hasn’t had the film industry touch their life in some way.
In the years since “Firestarter,” we have gained a top notch film studio, EUE/Screen Gems, which bought the facility from Carolco Studios (originally Dino DeLaurentiis’ old DEG Studios property). This studio is the largest east of California – and growing. In late May, “Dream Stage 10” will open here with a size of 37,500-square-foot. This will be the third largest soundstage in the country housing the largest and deepest special effects water tank in all of North America.
Some of the feature films and TV series shot in the Wilmington area include: Blue Velvet, The Butcher’s Wife, The Crow, Dawson’s Creek, Divine Secrets Of The Ya-Ya Sisterhood, Empire Records, I Know What You Did Last Summer, Matlock, One Tree Hill. Sleeping With The Enemy, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, The Road To Wellville, The Secret Life Of Bees, Weeds, Crimes of The Heart, Weekend at Bernies, Amos and Andrew, Domestic Disturbance and A Walk To Remember.
Current running and upcoming Tv series being shot here include: Eastbound & Down (HBO), Little Brittain USA (HBO) and Provinces of Night starring Hilary Duff
